I found this article interesting. Here are some quotes:

Brexit’s backers sold the project as a magic bullet that would solve the problems caused by a globalizing economy — not unlike Mr. Trump’s claims that tariffs would be a boon to the public purse and a remedy for the inequities of global trade. In neither case, experts said, does such a panacea exist.

“The truth is, Brexit did not correct any of the problems caused by deindustrialization,” said Tony Travers, a professor of politics at the London School of Economics. “If anything, Brexit made them worse.”

Mr. Trump’s MAGA coalition has some of the same ideological fault lines as the Brexiteers, pitting economic nationalists like Stephen K. Bannon against globalists like Elon Musk. That has led analysts to wonder if post-Trump politics in the United States will look a lot like post-Brexit politics in Britain.

“Brexit caused profound damage to the Conservative Party,” Professor Travers said. “It has been rendered unelectable b

I found this interesting. It's mainly about how Brexit has introduced extra red tape when dealing with Europe. The article says how the EU is the UK's largest trading partner, with the value of trade being over double that of the next largest trading partner: the USA.

Here are some quotes:

The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.

The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.

Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.

A British Transport Police spokesperson said: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex, however as an interim position while we digest yesterday’s judgement, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.

“We are in the process of reviewing the implications of the ruling and will consider any necessary updates to our policies and practices in line with the law and national guidance.”

A rise in misogyny and racism is flooding UK schools as pupils ape the behaviour of figures such as Donald Trump and Andrew Tate after exposure through social media and online gaming, teachers have warned.

A survey by the NASUWT union found most teachers identified social media as “the number one cause” of pupil misbehaviour, with female staff bearing the brunt. Teachers also raised concerns about parents who refuse to accept school rules or take responsibility for their children’s behaviour.

One teacher told the union: “A lot of the students are influenced by Tate and Trump, they spout racist, homophobic, transphobic and sexist comments in every conversation and don’t believe there will be consequences.”

The NASUWT’s general secretary, Patrick Roach, told the union’s annual conference on Friday: “Two in three teachers tell us that social media is now a critical factor contributing to bullying and poor pupil behaviour.

“Pupils who believe it is their inalienable right to access the

Donald Trump has said he is expecting to travel to to the UK in September for his second state visit.

King Charles is preparing to host the US president and first lady as the UK government tries to bolster transatlantic ties after Trump imposed a series of tariffs on trading partners.

The venue is expected to be Windsor Castle, with Keir Starmer and the US president understood to have discussed the visit during a phone call.

Trump on Thursday appeared to suggest Buckingham Palace was “setting a date for September”.

He told reporters in the Oval Office: “I was invited by the king and the country – great country.

“They’re going to do a second, as you know, a second fest … that’s what it is: a fest, and it’s beautiful, and it’s the first time it’s ever happened to one person.

“And the reason is we have two separate terms, and it’s an honour … I’m a friend of Charles, I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William, we have really just a great respect for the family.

“

Richard Medhurst, the Syrian-born British journalist and son of Nobel Peace Prize winners who was arrested by police last August as part of the Starmer regime’s misuse of anti-terror laws to target anti-genocide journalists and activists and has been kept in limbo for eight months since as the police state continues to ‘make the process the punishment’, has now been told to surrender himself to Heathrow police on 15 May.

Medhurst commented on the regime’s ‘criminalization of journalism’ that he still does not know whether he will be charged with an offence under the Terrorism Act – carrying a potential fourteen-year sentence, or potentially two years for protecting the confidentiality of his journalistic sources by refusing to disclose his device passwords to police – or whether the investigation will be extended or dropped altogether.

Starmer’s war on pro-Palestinian journalism and protest has seen numerous people raided, harassed, threatened and, in some cases, arrested and charged

You may remember the origins of the mystery: a fake story from a dodgy source published by the JC last September. The article, under the byline of Elon Perry, echoed the talking points of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was alleged to be based on documents uncovered in the Gaza Strip.

It all turned out to be rubbish. After Israeli journalists exposed the nonsense, the JC announced an inquiry. The very next day – 13 September – the paper concluded its “thorough investigation”. A two-paragraph statement offered no explanation of how it had come to publish such manipulated tosh but assured readers that the paper “maintains the highest journalistic standards”. Phew. Just imagine if it didn’t.

The Leveson Inquiry sat for 100 days, produced a report of around 2,000 pages and cost around £5m. A new regulator, IPSO, was the main outcome – a body with supposedly more bite than its toothless predecessor, the Press Complaints Commission, and the power to launch investigations wh

Interesting.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archwell foundation, which partners with organisations to drive change, halted donations to a Muslim women’s group in the US after their founder called for a Gaza ceasefire and denounced Israel’s war.

The foundation, established in 2020, cut ties with the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition (MMWC) earlier this week after they were made aware of a previous blog post from the group’s founder.

In February 2024, Janan Najeeb, the founder of MMWC, penned an online post in the Wisconsin Muslim Journal, where she called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and "an end to arming the apartheid state of Israel".

way to make life less safe for everyone, idiots

Britain’s rural communities could be “destroyed”, the former government food tsar has said, if ministers sign a US trade deal that undercuts British farming standards.

Ministers are working on a new trade deal with the US, after previous post-Brexit attempts stalled. Unpopular agreements signed at the time with Australia and New Zealand featured tariff-free access to beef and lamb and were accused of undercutting UK farmers, who are governed by higher welfare standards than their counterparts. Australia, in a trade deal signed by Liz Truss in late 2021 that came into effect in 2023, was given bespoke sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards aimed to not be more “trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human life and health

But the tariffs recently imposed by the US president, Donald Trump, combined with a push from the UK’s Labour government for economic growth, have caused ministers to redouble efforts to expedite a deal, which is expected, say some sources, within weeks. The

Equalities campaigners in the UK are braced for a supreme court ruling that could have a significant impact on the rights of transgender people to use single-sex services.

Five judges on the UK supreme court will rule on Wednesday morning whether or not the definition of woman in the Equality Act 2010 includes transgender women with gender recognition certificates (GRC).

The court’s decision is expected to lead to calls for the act to be rewritten, and could have a profound effect on the rights of transgender women to take places on public boards reserved for women, and to use spaces and services intended for women.

The case against the Scottish government was brought by the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland after judges in Edinburgh ruled that ministers were right to say that trans women with a GRC could sit on public boards in posts reserved for women.

FWS, which is partly funded by the writer JK Rowling and has support from the campaign group Sex Matters, argues

Middle East Eye revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Saar was visiting the UK on a private trip this week, and then reported on Tuesday evening that he had met British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in London.

The secretive nature of Lammy's meeting with a representative of a government accused of widescale human rights abuses has drawn heavy criticism from opposition MPs and politicians in Britain.

Now, MEE understands that the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and the Hind Rajab Foundation have formally submitted a request to the UK's attorney general and director of public prosecutions.

They are seeking consent from the senior British legal officers to apply for an arrest warrant targeting the Israeli foreign minister. They allege that Saar, a key member of the Israeli cabinet, has aided and abetted torture and grave breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

The Labour chairs of the foreign and trade committees have called for parliament to have a vote on any UK trade deal with the United States.

Emily Thornberry, who chairs the foreign affairs committee, and Liam Byrne, who chairs the business and trade committee, said MPs should have a say on the deal ministers are hoping to strike with Donald Trump.

The government is hopeful of finalising an agreement that would exempt the UK from some of Trump’s most punishing tariffs, including on cars and pharmaceuticals, after positive signals from Washington.

Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Wednesday said the US would be announcing its first deals “very soon” and the vice-president, JD Vance, said this week there was a “good chance” of the US agreeing one with the UK.

But ministers have offered controversial concessions, including slashing the digital services tax on US tech giants and reviewing the enforcement of online safety laws, as part of their negotiations.

Byrne said: “Th

Members of the Board of Deputies, the largest body representing British Jews, have said they can no longer “turn a blind eye or remain silent” over the war in Gaza.

In a significant break with the board’s customary support for the Israeli government, the 36 signatories to an open letter published in the FT say “Israel’s soul is being ripped out”.

Since the war began after the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas against Israelis on 7 October 2023, statements by the Board of Deputies of British Jews have been broadly supportive of the Israeli government.

But the letter, signed by about one in eight of the board’s members, is highly critical of recent actions by the Israeli government.

It says: “The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out.”

Last month, after a pause in fighting during which dozens of Israelis held hostage in Gaza were released, the Israeli government “chose to break

Water companies have missed their targets to reduce pollution with 2,487 incidents recorded in 2024 – twice the limit set by the Environment Agency.

Data revealed under freedom of information law shows the companies were collectively set an Environment Agency target of a 40% reduction in pollution incidents, but instead recorded a 30% increase.

The number of pollution incidents in 2024 was the highest in a decade.

A new report by the charity Surfers Against Sewage using discharge data, sickness data and figures from its app, which uses citizen science to track sewage spills, reveals that the water industry in England failed to hit its targets for reducing pollution incidents for the last investment period of 2020-2025.

Under the new investment period, starting this year, customers are to face an average hike in bills of £123 so water companies can invest in fixing pipes and sewers in order to stem the flow of pollution. But an “urgent and radical reform” of the sector is needed, th